WTF is the ship insurance for?
Doesn't this game have savegames?
insurance is like car insuranceYou can go without but if your ship gets destroyed you have to buy a new one or with insurance it is covered and you get a replacement

almost all include the final game and alpha and beta access + a ship and if you get before the new site is launched you will get lifetime insurance on that ship
All packages here http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/
And with the first point I agree and have put in $500

end date after initial pledge is nov 2014 game will be released as 1.0 then unless its not ready and chris wont release but may be released early if all goes well
alpha components will be released this month to next month and is a true alpha and beta unlike some games that call a demo an alpha or beta and in the alpha it will just be testing sections of the game so dont expect a working game if you test
first release is testing the garage system and how it works
second is dog fighting sim (which could be alot of fun) testing how each ships moves and handles combat in just open space

a bit of both
he would like a Developer but no one would take it on with his demands as he has had the usual developer thing where they push the release even tho it isn't done and is what happened with freelancer and Microsoft
so he went with crowd funding and private investors and they set a goal to fund for him to have the community raise $2mil to prove that there was community interest and it now at Raised: $9,578,617 and is planning to make it 100% crowd funded as then everything gets put into the game and nothing has to be payed back to investors

Well i cant believe I haven't posted this here yet as I thought I had but here it is
What is Robert Space Industries - Star Citizen - Squadron 42
well all info is here http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
but in summary it is a Space Sim that promises to be the most immersive game ever and Chris Roberts now without a publisher I believe can deliver
and some videos - first is the pitch video from Chris Roberts
then we have Top 15 reasons to be interested in star citizen
Star Citizen Extended Trailer - Squadron 42 [Cry Engine 3]